Anna Kostrzyńska, soprano was born in Warsaw, Poland. In 1982 she studied piano at Szymanowski State School of Music. Ms. Kostrzyńska was the youngest vocalist in “The Warsaw Philharmonic for Children”, where she sang from 1985 to 1988. In 1988 she began to take harp and voice lessons. In 1995 she graduated from K. Szymanowski State School of Music and concentrated on attaining her dream of becoming an opera singer. She studied at the F. Chopin State Music School to obtain a diploma as a vocalist, studying with Professor Hanna Rejmer. After graduating from that school she left Poland and went to Italy to continue mastering the harp for the next year. She was studying at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence with Maria Grazia Germani and Marta Taddei as well as taking private instruction with Fedora Barbieri and Susanna Rigacci.  In 2000 she transferred to the G. B. Martini Conservatory in Bologna where she studied with Stella Parenti. In 2002, Ms. Kostrzyńska studied with Professor Urszula Moroz-Trawińska. In 2005, Ms. Kostrzyńska performed at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York, then in San Diego and Los Angeles, California. On December 17, 2005, she made her Carnegie Hall debut and had three additional appearances in the next three years singing with Dimitri Kavrakos-Bass, Dorota Sobieska-Soprano and Cezary Doda-Bass-Baritone. In the fall of 2006, Ms. Kostrzynska studied with the great Polish opera singer and vocal teacher, Zdzislawa Donat.

Ms. Kostrzyńska had her debut with the Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra performing in Aberdeen, Maryland. In addition, on November 11, 2007 Ms. Kostrzynska was the main artist at a concert at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, singing music by Wojciech Kilar with the SSO, along with three choruses. In February 2008, Ms. Kostrzynska debuted as Marcelina in “Le Nozze di Figaro”, by Mozart, produced by The Cleveland Opera Circle in Cleveland, Ohio. She also performed in Sarasota, Florida, with baritone, Krzysztof Biernacki and pianist, Marek Kudlicki,. Her most recent appearance at Carnegie Hall took place on October 26, 2008 with Krzysztof Biernacki and pianist Jacek Zganiacz.

Jan Sporek is a teacher, conductor, choirmaster, composer, writer, promoter, and is a most eminent Polish community activist. He came to the USA in 1987 with his son Wojciech and worked as a contractor, house painter, watchman, plumber and driver. After two hard years he settled as a musician being co-founder and conductor of the Hejnal choir. In 1991 he established his music school, The Music Education Center. He also established his own international vocal group “Esprit de Chorus,” as well as the mixed choir, “Paderewski Festival Singers,” the only Polish choir to have performed at Carnegie Hall four times. He was a General Choral Director of the Polish Singers Alliance of America and President of Chopin Foundation Council of Greater New York. After gaining knowledge of the English language, he started to promote various international artists and Polish music. For the last ten years he became the only Polish producer who presented fifteen concerts at Carnegie Hall, six at Lincoln Center, and more than ten at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Other venues in which he organized his concerts were The United Nations, St. Peter’s Church, the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland, and many others. Maestro Sporek also presented Polish artists in other cities such as San Diego and Los Angeles California, and Sarasota, Florida. He performed with the PSAA choruses in Detroit, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, New Britain, Connecticut, and Philadelphia and Johnstown, Pennsylvania. His role for many of these concerts was as a conductor, leading orchestras and choruses. For twenty years he organized concerts, reaching the sensational number of one hundred and ten. In 2007, he established a close relationship with the Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra of Bel Air, Maryland, led by Maestro Sheldon Bair. Mr. Sporek has presented seventy artists from around the world, including Polish, American, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Slovenian and Russian. He has also presented fifteen artistic groups, including orchestras, choruses, and dance/song ensembles. He was a radio personality of three Polish radio stations in New York and New Jersey. Presently he broadcasts his own program from the Polish language television of New York - US Polsat. One of his piano miniatures has been used as the soundtrack in the movie “Pay Day,” made under the auspices of NYU. For his story, entitled “New in the New Year,” Mr. Sporek won first prize in the International Writing Competition for Polish Immigrants, competing with writers from all over the world. Mr. Sporek was named “Citizen of the Year” by the readers of the Polish-American World in 1998. His honors also include the Polish Government’s “Knight’s Cross” awarded in 2000 for his services to the Republic of Poland and “Mistral’s Medal” given to him in 1986 by the Government of Provence, France for his activities in connecting the nations through music.

Tonight’s concert celebrates the 20th Anniversary of Mr. Sporek’s work with the arts in the USA. All of Mr. Sporek’s artistic works he dedicates to his late Mother, who is his only hero and the greatest love of his life.

Conductor Monika Wolińska, was born in Chełm, Poland and began her music education at the age of six, learning to play the violin. She is a threefold graduate in music, having obtained a master’s degree in vocal and instrumental ensembles in the class of Janusz Stanecki in 1998, and in the violin class led by Henryk Bałaban in 2000, both at the Music Academy in Bydgoszcz. In 2003 she became a graduate of the symphony and opera conducting class of Ryszard Dudek at the Academy of Music in Warsaw. She was distinguished by being invited to conduct her diploma concert at the National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw. Ms. Wolińska continued her education, actively participating in various master courses conducted by Antoni Wit, Gabriel Chmura, Kurt Masur, and Pierre Boulez. Since 2003 she has collaborated with the Symphony Orchestra of the Fr. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, and since 2004 has served on a regular basis as an assistant of Maestro Jerzy Semkow.  In the season of 2007 and 2008, she performed the duties of the permanent conductor of the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, as well as assisted Krzysztof Penderecki.

Ms. Wolińska has performed in many prestigious festivals in Poland and abroad, including the Lucerne Music Festival, International Festival of Music in St Petersburg, and the International Warsaw Autumn Festival of Contemporary Music. She has given concerts with the majority of philharmonic orchestras in Poland, and many foreign ensembles, e.g., the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of the Polish Radio in Katowice, Orchestra of the Polish Radio, Lucerne Music Festival Orchestra, Badenem Philharmoniker, Orchestra of the Music Conservatoire in St. Petersburg, the Moscow Moscovia Chamber Orchestra, Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestra of the Fr. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. She has premiered many performances as well as recorded several archival symphony compositions for  Polish radio and German television SWR. In 2004 she received a scholarship from the Minister of Culture, and in 2005, published a book devoted to the great Polish conductor Stanisław Wisłocki entitled Stanisław Wisłocki – a Conductor and Pedagogue. In 2007 she took her doctorate in the area of symphony and opera, conducting at the Fr. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw.

Jacek Zganiacz, pianist from Poland, received his early training in Rybnik where he studied with Prof. Irena Krzyszkowska. He continued his studies at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice under Prof. Jozef Stompel. In 1985 he arrived in New York to continue his piano studies at the Julliard School of Music with Prof. Joseph Raieff. After receiving his Master's degree, he was granted both Licentiate and Fellowship Degrees by the Trinity College in London. Mr. Zganiacz performs recitals, concerts with symphony orchestras, and accompanies singers and instrumentalists. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Garden State Arts Center, Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, and The Fryderyk Chopin Society in Warsaw, Poland. He regularly appears with Chopin recitals in Zelazowa Wola (Chopin's birthplace) and Lazienki Park in Warsaw.  In 1998 Mr. Zganiacz toured Silesia (Poland), with an innovative presentation of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" with a brass band.  He performed an all-Chopin recital at the Ethnic Society Hall in Philadelphia, PA.

Mr. Zganiacz often takes part in "evenings of poetry and music." He shared the stage with Stephanie Powers, Teresa Budzisz-Krzyzanowska, Jerzy Zelnik, Janusz Bukowski and others. Besides music, Mr. Zganiacz holds several licenses and has over a decade of experience in the financial field. He also holds commercial pilot and flight instructor licenses. Mr. Zganiacz is also the owner of Northern Westchester Music School in Yorktown Heights, NY.